Side Hustle Pro

Side Hustle Pro spotlights bold black women entrepreneurs who have scaled from side hustle to profitable business. Join Chief Side Hustler turned full-time entrepreneur Nicaila Matthews Okome for your weekly installment of Side Hustle Pro and learn actionable strategies to start small and get going–wherever and whoever you are. Side Hustle Pro features interviews with inspiring black women entrepreneurs including interviews with Myleik Teele of CurlBox, Lisa Price of Carol's Daughter, Nicole Walters of The Monetized Life, Maya Elious of Built to Impact, and more!

Today in the guest chair I have online coach and personal trainer Tameika G. Tameika’s story is far from ordinary. Over the course of ten years, she completely flipped her lifestyle and her long term career path as a result.

Years ago, she was overweight, living in her home country of Canada and just generally unhappy. But she decided she didn’t want her food addiction and obesity to be what defined her story and her end game. So she made drastic life changes to rewrite her own story.

She lost 90 lbs and has kept it off for 10 years. Since losing 90 pounds, she has devoted her time to helping others achieve the same happiness she's found on this journey. As a Certified Personal Trainer, she has helped over 400 clients, both in person and online, lose a cumulative total of 3000+ pounds. And she did this all while side hustling.

After several years side hustling, working in corporate and being a fitness professional on the side, she was finally able to build a life she no longer needs a vacation from.

On today’s episode, Tameika gets into:

Why heartbreak led her to make a radical life and professional change

What made her choose Asia

How she quit her job and found a way to move to another country

How she kept costs low to work her “get out of a debt plan”

The tipping point that made her quit her job

How she focuses on her purpose and her passion

How she paid her rent in full for the year so she can focus on her purpose and passion

Announcements

Side Hustle Pro is now over 4800 members strong. If you’re looking for a community of supportive side hustlers who are all working to take our businesses to the next level, join us here:http://sidehustlepro.co/facebook

Today in the guest chair is Brooklyn-bred and Baltimore-based entrepreneur, Kalilah Wright. Kalilah is the Owner and Creative Director of t-shirt company, Mess in a Bottle. Through Mess in a Bottle, a cutting-edge brand with timely and to-the-point messaging, she hopes to give voice to the voiceless.

Kalilah has always had a business spirit and, in 2016, quit her job and hit the ground running with a fierce work ethic and grind mentality. As an accomplished designer and trained architect, she used her Master's degree from Morgan State University and Bachelors of Arts from Penn State University to establish her brand in Baltimore City, Maryland.

I met Kalilah at the Rise Empowerment conference in DC in 2016. All I remember is her dressed in her Mess in a Bottle Gear and handing out free product to the conference speakers. Almost immediately, when I checked the conference hashtag one of the conference speakers had already shared Kalilah's gift on Instagram. I was impressed by her guerilla marketing and hustle mentality then and have been watching her journey ever since.

On today's show, Kalilah shares more of the real deal holyfield of what it's like to be a new entrepreneur.

Kalilah gets into:

Why she left her dream job at Under Armour even though she didn't have everything all figured out

How she used craigslist and $500 to buy her early equipment

How she found and pays for her first business space ever

Her conference hustle strategy that helps her to get her name and brand out there and much more!

Announcements

Side Hustle Pro is now over 4800 members strong. If you’re looking for a community of supportive side hustlers who are all working to take our businesses to the next level, join us here:http://sidehustlepro.co/facebook

Today’s guest is Nailah Ellis Brown. I first heard about Nailah from my roommates, Nydia and Stefanie at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

They supported her business as part of the MBAs Across America program that the participated in (and you’ll hear more about this in the episode).

I’ve been fascinated by Nailah every since. A Black Woman from Detroit with Jamaican roots, Ellis-Brown has made a name for herself as part of the Detroit manufacturing renaissance. Her distinctive hibiscus Ellis Island Tea, based on a family recipe and bottled in an urban 4,000 square foot plant, has expanded sales into six airports and locations across 12 Midwestern states along with shelf space in regional retailer Meijer, Whole Foods and most recently Sam Club stores.

She’s been named one of the Forbes 30 Under 30, has been featured on MSNBC for a small business makeover, and she’s only getting started.

Her plan was to go to school, work on wall street then quit and be an entrepreneur

But when she realized the student loan hustle, she wanted no parts of it.

On today’s episode, Nailah gets into:

How she’s been able to brew and bottle a recipe steeped in family tradition

How she went from selling out of her trunk to selling in Sam’s clb

Learning the science behind her

How she took a leap of faith and started over from scratch

How investing in herself and her business led to big rewards in major brand partnership

Announcements

Side Hustle Pro is now over 4800 members strong. If you’re looking for a community of supportive side hustlers who are all working to take our businesses to the next level, join us here:http://sidehustlepro.co/facebook